Field
Embodiments of the disclosure relate generally to bistatic tactical radar applications employing supersonic unmanned aerial vehicles and more particularly to a system employing small unmanned air vehicles (UAV) having transmit/receive antennae deployable from a retracted supersonic cruise position to an extended triangular form.
Background
Aircraft reconnaissance and interdiction has been significantly complicated by the appearance of highly accurate and often minimally detectable antiaircraft systems. Consequently, most current tactical combat aircraft entering into contested or hostile airspace are placed at risk. The detection range of these systems may be significant thus requiring a significant standoff distance to avoid the contested airspace, often beyond the effective range of radar systems employed in current tactical aircraft. The use of stealth aircraft to penetrate hostile airspace and accomplish such missions provides a certain level of increased survivability but such aircraft are highly expensive assets and are used only upon critical need. Use of UAVs for bistatic radar applications provides an alternative. However, speed of typical UAV system requires significant standoff time for aircraft acting as a mothership for deployment.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system with a high speed UAV component for bistatic radar sensing whereby a mothership may remain clear of contested airspace while being able to use radar surveillance for target identification, acquisition and establishing prosecutable trackfiles.